June News: AI Week Wrap-up & Welcoming New Fellows

Hi there,

Last month, we were pleased to host more than 2,100 AI professionals, scientists and enthusiasts for our inaugural AI Week from May 24-27. 

The four-day event, which took place at Amii’s headquarters at First and Jasper, the University of Alberta and other venues across downtown Edmonton, was an opportunity to celebrate 20 years of AI excellence in the province and launch us into the next 20 years of impact.

Throughout the jam-packed week, we saw:

• +2100 AI professionals, scientists and enthusiasts connecting and learning about opportunities in AI
• +80 speakers from the business, academic, government, startup and investment communities
• More than 60 business-focused and academic events, including panels, fireside chats, academic sessions and community events

And we were incredibly excited to welcome the world’s AI community to Edmonton through our global talent bursary program, which helped cover the cost of travel and accommodations for AI technical professionals looking to accelerate their careers in AI. We received +875 applications from 38 different countries, with 69% of applicants identifying as part of an underrepresented community in STEM. And ultimately, we awarded 515 bursaries with more than half going to individuals outside of Alberta.

Excited for next year? Sign up for our AI Week Insiders List – and be the first to get news about AI Week 2023, which is sure to be the can’t-miss event of the year!

See you soon,

June Highlights

Industry & Community Updates:

• AI Week 2022 brought together more than 2,100 AI enthusiasts and professionals to connect across nearly 60 unique events! Check out how the event launched a new era of AI impact in Alberta.
• Twenty years ago, Amii was an ambitious idea among a handful of AI researchers. Learn more about Amii's early days and how it grew into a world-leading research centre in this video chat with co-founding researcher Randy Goebel and COO Kirk Rockwell. 
• Once you have a solid machine learning idea or question, how do you decide who is going to build and deploy the model? Learn more about the three paths you can take and whether you should build, buy or partner for your ML solution. For monthly insights into the business of AI, sign up for AI & Your Business News.

Research Updates:

• The Amii team is growing! We're thrilled to welcome three new Fellows to the organization, all affiliated with the University of Alberta. Linglong Kong and Bei Jiang bring statistical expertise and experience working with AI for healthcare. And we welcome back Jonathan Schaeffer, one of Amii's original co-founders. Learn more about the trio and their impact on AI research. 
• In his AI Seminar, Roberto Vega presented "SIMLR, Machine Learning inside an SIR model for COVID-19 forecasting" on using machine learning to improve coronavirus forecasting.
  
• The National Research Council Canada, CIFAR and Canada’s three national AI institutes (Amii, Mila and the Vector Institute) are pleased to announce a new memorandum of understanding that will increase capacity in artificial intelligence and data science research and training in Canada.

Training Updates:

• Debating with yourself about whether or not to pursue a PhD? Listen to Amii experts Cam Linke and Adam White discuss their own experiences, exploring pros, cons and other considerations.
• More than 200 women and gender-diverse individuals will be participating in this year's Kickstart Program! Learn more about this year's program in a recent article from BetaKit.
• If you’re looking to pursue a career in AI, Amii’s AI Career Accelerator can help! Learn more about the support, resources and opportunities Amii offers.
• Start your AI journey with the ML Foundations 1 course. Learn the basics of AI and machine learning using real-world examples. Registration is now open for the July 7 class.
• And continue building your AI knowledge with ML Foundations 2, where you will learn more about technical concepts in AI and ML. Sign up for the July 14 class. 

Upcoming Events

June 20-24: World Diversity in Leadership Conference

The World Diversity in Leadership Conference examines the latest trends and insights for building bridges within organizations. This year's theme is “Leveraging Diversity to Advance Innovation & Entrepreneurship” -- attend and learn from interactive sessions, in-depth cases, and inspiring presentations by acknowledged thought leaders & researchers. On June 24, Amii's Spencer Murray will be presenting on how we can embrace our AI opportunity in Canada.

Learn more

June 21 (12 - 1pm MST): AI Meetup – June 21, 2022

Amii’s Virtual AI Meetup is a monthly event where AI researchers, professionals and enthusiasts gather to learn and chat about AI-related topics.

This month’s meetup is all about weather! Hosted by Amii's Jubair Sheikh, the event features Marlos C. Machado (Fellow & Canada CIFAR AI Chair at Amii), speaking about his work applying reinforcement learning to autonomously navigate Loon stratospheric balloons.

Register today

Career Opportunities

• Work directly with organizations eager to implement machine learning into their business. Apply to be a Machine Learning Scientist on our Industry team by June 17.
• The Department of Computing Science at the Unversity Alberta and Amii are looking for one or two postdoctoral fellows to work with our Fellows in multiple areas of AI research. Get your application in before July 8.